Conspiracy Round-up – January 2016

Is the Bundy takeover of the Malheur national wildlife reserve a conspiracy theory? I guess it depends on what you are interested in. If we’re worried that we’re not calling these people ‘terrorists’, then there’s a question as to why (one answer to which will be some claim of a concerted – and maybe secretive – effort by the media and government not to call white people terrorists). There’s also the issue that many of the occupiers are conspiracy theorists themselves, and believe in a state-led conspiracy to deprive them of their natural rights (namecheck: Agenda 21), or that slavery never happened. Whatever we want to call then, they are certainly paranoid enough. Also, why are the authorities strangely absent? What could possibly explain that?

There’s certainly a discussion to be had about the role of academic freedom, and the associated duties. Northwestern’s Arthur Butz, for example, was not fired for his Holocaust denial. (which is not to compare what Tracy has alleged to have done with anti-Semitism; this is merely an example of a university defending what many rightly would take to be highly offensive behaviour because it was not relevant to Butz’s position).

I do want to call out one article on this, however, which is a perfect illustration of how framing a debate can make one side look more or less bad. This piece about the HONR network talks about harassing people who are sceptical about the official theory of what happened at Sandy Hook. Yet if you think asking people to prove their dead children ever existed is a bad thing, the HONR network looks like it might be a conspiracy of well-intentioned people who just want to stop further trauma. Framing, as we know, can really affect how you view a story.

This article from The Intercept deftly moves from discussion of the various open plots against Jeremy Corbyn to discussion of how some on the Left are hawkish about the Middle East. Corey Robin has some additional notes.

Ashley Madison might be increasing its user base. Someone suggested to me that Ashley Madison was always a conspiracy; it was really just an extortion racket. That’s why they never checked the emails people used to sign up with; it didn’t matter to them, as long as people wanted to pay the fee to get the account associated with their email deactivated.